ATI Radeon HD 4890 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275

It’s not often we get to take two brand-new GPUs and pit them against each other in one launch article, but that’s what we’re doing with ATI’s HD 4890 and NVIDIA’s GTX 275. Both cards are priced at $249, and both also happen to offer great performance and insane overclocking-ability. So coupled with those and other factors, who comes out on top?

Need for Speed: Undercover

The Need for Speed series is one that remains close to my heart, as I’ve been played through each title since the release of the second title. Although the series has taken some strange turns most recently, the series still manages to deliver a great arcade-like experience that can be enjoyed by NFS die-hards and casual gamers alike. Sadly, more serious racing fans have had to look elsewhere lately, so hopefully the next NFS incarnation will finally perfect what fans are really looking for.

While ProStreet diverted from the usual “open-world” design, Undercover returned to it. Also returning are police cars, a favorite of most fans. I’m a firm believer that most NFS titles should include police chases, and for the most part, they’re executed well in Undercover. There’s not too much that exists in this world that proves more frustrating than running over a spike strip after a clean 30-minute run, though.

For all of our tests, the graphics settings available are maxed out to their highest ability, with 4xAA being our chosen Anti-Aliasing setting.

The GTX 275 continues to come out the faster card, beating the HD 4890 by a fair margin throughout all three of our resolutions here. NVIDIA’s most recent driver also fixes up the 2560×1600 issue with this title that I’ve been experiencing for a while (discussed many times in previous GPU reviews), so I’ll soon be benchmarking the rest of NVIDIA’s line-up to fill up the above graph a bit more.

We’ll once again omit the “best playable” chart here due to the overall lack of results for our 2560×1600 resolution. We’ll prepare one in time for our next graphics card review.

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.